Partner Profile: Diogomaye Lô, Senegal

Madame Tây wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the team of incredibly talented, devoted and patient artisans we are collaborating with. In Senegal, our main partner is our tailor, Diogomaye Lô

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I first met Diogomaye Lô in Saint-Louis in August 2013. I was looking for a skilled tailor with a good eye for modern styles and despite the hundreds of tailors working in Saint-Louis’ Marché Santhiaba, it can be really difficult to find a tailor who can make modern clothes, as most of the tailors are specialists in creating traditional Senegalese wear (think long kaftans and ankle-length skirt and matching top ensembles!). One of my oldest friends in Senegal, Beuz, is a tailor, but he has been living and working in France for a few years now. Lucky for me he is still pretty in tune with the tailoring scene in Saint-Louis and suggested I meet Diogo, known also as Diox, when I was looking for a tailor in August last year.

As soon as I saw Diogomaye in his tie-dye shirt with his big, diamond-encrusted necklace (not real diamonds, by the way), I knew Beuz had sent me the right way. Diogomaye made me a few really beautiful and really detailed pieces, so when it came to finding a tailor I could trust to create garments for Madame Tây, I knew he was the man for the job.

Diogo's contemporary work at a fashion show in Saint-Louis in 2009

Some of Diogo's more traditional work

Diogomaye got his first taste for tailoring in 1992 at the tender age of 15. At the time, he worked with his Uncle at Marché Santhiaba while he learnt the techniques of the trade like looping thread, cutting and basic stitches. A few years later, with the support of a family friend, Diogomaye was able to attend a fashion school in the town of Saly, a few hours south of Dakar. Diox spent seven years working and studying in Saly at Ely B Confection, under the tutelage of a franco-senegalese couple who were both fashion fanatics. In Saly, Diogomaye learnt about patternmaking, industrial sewing and mechanical cutting, as well as refining his designing, cutting and sewing techniques. In 2003, he returned to Saint-Louis where he opened his atelier in the Marché Santhiaba, where he has been working for a diverse range of clients ever since.

Here is a photo of the outfit which won Diogomaye the esteemed 'Ciseaux d'Or' (Golden Scissors) award in 2010:

Butterfly lady from Calabash and Bottletops.

He requested I include this photo of him, looking sharp as always:

If you’re ever in Saint-Louis, and would like the number of a talented tailor, you can give Diogomaye a call on +221 77 261 62 57 or +221 70 924 72 60. He has an atelier at the market just at the end of the bridge to the Langue du Barbarie, called Marché Santhiaba. Tell him Madame Tây sent you!

West Africa Production - Phase Three: Garment Production

After our first samples had been tested, we set to work making the needed changes – the blazers were too long, the t-shirt were too wide, the shorts were a bit too tight and the skirts needed a few extra details. The whole process was pretty difficult for me, as someone who has never worked in patternmaking or design but who has specific ideas about what the final product should look like. Luckily, our tailor Diogo was super patient and really great at showing me his methods of cutting fabric and explaining techniques like darting which really helped me understand what changes we needed to make for our final run of garments.

Diogo in his atelier in Marche Santhiaba, Saint-Louis, Senegal

Once Diogo and I had decided on the final changes to make to the four different pieces we are producing, he set about the production – which included transferring patterns, cutting and finally sewing over 130 metres of fabric! Needless to say, it was a look of work, so Diogo called in his friend Atou (pictured below) and they worked together to complete about 75 pieces (plus a few extra surprises!) for Madame Tay’s first range of garments.

Atou (l) and Diogo (r) getting to work, Saint-Louis, Senegal

Atou and his machine, Saint-Louis, Senegal

Diogo has an atelier in Marche Santhiaba, the big textile market in Saint-Louis, in Northern Senegal. The market is buzzing from 6am to 11pm with the sounds of sewing machines and scissors slicing through fabric. Diogo’s atelier looks onto a long, covered passageway where apprentice tailors spend hours each day looping string to make fancy embroidery for dresses and shirts -  which are both really popular in Senegal for events and celebrations.

Detail of Diogo's atelier - superman, mannequins and posters of Senegalese religious leaders

Marche Santhiaba

The last part of the production was completed in Dakar, at Diogo’s family house in a suburb called Parcelles. We set up a temporary atelier with a borrowed table, a borrowed sewing machine and goats constantly sticking their heads through the window as Diogo worked.

Diogo's temporary atelier in Parcelles, Dakar

Madame Tay garments ready to be sewn!

Diogo cutting out some Madame Tay high waisted shorts.

Diogo and some neighbourhood goats.

Partner Profile: Lan Anh, Vietnam

Meet Lan Anh – our tailor of the Peekaboo Dress and the Navy and the Snow-White Chemise. She has been tailoring clothes for more than 30 years, when her mother taught her to sew at the age of 15. After she finished school she studied with a friend’s mother who was a tailor and taught her to cut patterns. When she got married when she was 25 years old she left home and started her own tailoring business. On average, she estimates that she will make around 35 pieces of clothes each week and employs two staff to help her sew. I love working with Lan Anh because she has amazing attention to detail – all her pieces are beautifully crafted and that is why we have chosen to work with her on the Peekaboo Dress and the chemise – the simple classic pieces where the small details really count.

Visit Lan Anh on Lane 210 Doi Can, Hanoi.  

Ladies Brunch and Clothes Fitting

After getting each piece tailored in a range of sizes, I invited a bunch of girls over and threw a ladies brunch + clothes fitting party! I had also recently gotten a new breadmaker, so it was also a chance to practice my breadmaking skills. We tested out each size on a number of girls of different heights and curves to test the sizing and cuts and make adjustments before going forward on producing bulk orders in each size. I also tested a few finishing options to see which buttons, zips and linings people preferred. The navy chemise, for example, originally came with three options for buttons - a classic white pearl button, a small marble button and a funky square yellow button. In the end almost everyone unanimously voted for the white pearl button!

West Africa Production - Phase Two: Samples

After doing preliminary design with Martha in Ghana, the next step was starting production in Senegal with our tailor, Diogomaye. On a Saturday afternoon I was invited over to Diogo’s family’s house in Parcelles – the Northern suburbs of Dakar, right next to the beach – super beautiful!

Diogo and I going over measurements

The first step was going over the first designs with Diogo, and seeing how these could be translated to the fabric we had purchased at Sandaga earlier in the week with Diogo’s cousin and Aunty. After reworking a few of the measurements, Diogo got to work in his atelier to produce the first lot of samples we would use to finalise the pieces we’d make for Madame Tay’s first production lot.

Diogo hard at work on our first pieces

Cutting table

Diogo at work at his atelier

After Diogo had completed 15 samples, I gathered a few of my friends to have a casual clothes fitting to see how the pieces worked and if we needed to do any adjustments. The clothes fitting turned into an impromptu photoshoot, here are a few shots:

It was really useful to see what the pieces looked like on a range of different sized women, and made me realise just how difficult correct sizing and fit could be. My friends were really helpful, and made plenty of suggestions to Diogo and me as to what should be changed. After taking lots of notes, and working out what pieces needed some work, Diogo and I set to making a few more samples, just to make sure we were on the right track.

Partner Profile: Binh & Thuy, Vietnam

Like most of Binh’s customers, I first came to know about him through a recommendation. Having run his own tailoring business for more than 20 years, Binh never advertises his services, so his customers learn about him purely through word of mouth.

Now 54 years old, Binh came from a family of tailors and has been working since he was 16. His parents taught Binh and his three sisters and brother to sew from a young age and they would help their parents in their small tailoring business. Today, all of his three sisters own their own tailoring businesses in Hanoi – one of them living and working in the house directly opposite Binh’s. His only brother has moved to Saigon and works in business, but Binh has stayed in the family trade - he notes that he likes to keep with traditions.

Although Binh’s parents worked as tailors out of same family home and shop where Binh still lives and works today, the backdrop was vastly different. His parents worked through Japanese and French occupation of Hanoi and the American-Vietnam War.  Back then, employing staff was restricted by law, so Binh’s parents worked on their own filling out a small number of orders each week. After his parents retired, Binh started his own tailoring business.

He first met Thuy in 1990 when she came as a customer to his shop to get some clothes tailored. Although Thuy worked in a clothing factory, she did not know how to make clothes herself as she worked only on her small part of the production line. After they married, Thuy quit her job at the clothing factory, Binh taught her the basics to sewing and tailoring and today she helps to sew zips and buttons and manages the finances. 

When he first started his own business, Binh worked by himself – as he explains, his expenses were low back then and he only needed to work enough to earn a small amount of money for food and other basic living costs. After getting married, he suddenly found he needed to spend a lot more money! As luck would have it, Doi Moi had taken place only a few years before and in 1994 the United States would lift  their almost 20 year trade embargo on Vietnam, opening up the country’s economy to international business and trade. Opportunities were ripe for small business owners like Binh and Thuy. At their peak, they employed 7 staff to support him and Thuy. However, the economic downturn that hit Vietnam in 2011 has also affected their business. Today, they have three staff who have been working with them for 20 years. Binh estimates that each day, they make together on average 10 pairs of pants and 5 dresses.

For each Madame Tây piece, Binh and Thuy estimates that it takes 3 hours to put together a skirt from start to finish and 4 hours to put together a dress.  They explain that each of these pieces take a bit longer to make because of the lining.

When I ask Binh what he imagines himself to be doing if he hadn’t been a tailor, he pauses for a while and then shakes his hands perplexed, tailoring he explains is his hobby. He points to the checked shirt and trousers he is wearing and his daughter My’s denim jeans, noting that they were all tailored by him.

You can find Binh and Thuy just around the corner from the Temple of Literature.

House 7, Alley Lương Sử B Quốc Tử Giám, Đống Đa, Hà Nội

Phone: +84 04 3732 1557